23:1 |
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: |
23:2 |
And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. |
23:3 |
Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. |
23:4 |
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. |
23:5 |
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. |
23:6 |
Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: |
23:7 |
For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. |
23:8 |
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words. |
23:9 |
Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words. |
23:10 |
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: |
23:11 |
For their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. |
23:12 |
Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. |
23:13 |
Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. |
23:14 |
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell. |
23:15 |
My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine. |
23:16 |
Yea, my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. |
23:17 |
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the LORD all the day long. |
23:18 |
For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off. |
23:19 |
Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. |
23:20 |
Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: |
23:21 |
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. |
23:22 |
Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. |
23:23 |
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. |
23:24 |
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. |
23:25 |
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice. |
23:26 |
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. |
23:27 |
For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit. |
23:28 |
She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men. |
23:29 |
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? |
23:30 |
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. |
23:31 |
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. |
23:32 |
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. |
23:33 |
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. |
23:34 |
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. |
23:35 |
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. |